Camp Cupcake: The Battle for Consistency

I have never been a very consistent person, in terms of routine. For the first year after I was home from my mission, it felt like I was still living like I would be transferred every three months. I lived in five different apartments over the course of a year, and every new apartment brought a different routine, different eating habits, and different sleeping habits.

As a student, it was a luxury I seemed to have--the ability to wake up at a different time every morning, depending on when my first class was. Some nights I would go to bed at a decent hour. However, on nights when I had late clients, it was harder for me to unwind, and I'd end up staying up late getting other work done.

Now I have a grown-up job. If you want to get technical, I can pretty much come and go as I please, as long as I get my work done and I show up to meetings and to teach class. However, it seems like a good time to get better about being consistent.

It started a few weeks ago, when I recognized that my time-management has suffered since I started my job. I started to read a book called Sink Reflections, by a woman named Marla Cilley, who also calls herself Fly Lady. I often have my depressed clients read it because it's basically a book about taking control of your life, written for women who have trouble keeping their houses clean. And it's all about consistency. So I started trying to stick to a weekly schedule, which mostly includes cleaning out my purse and my car regularly.

Then I got a Wii Fit for Christmas. With the cold winter upon us, it provides a nice alternative to running in the freezing cold mornings or evenings. And it shames me if I don't do it regularly.

Then, Friday, I went to a writing seminar in which the presenter, who has written extensively on the subject of academic writing, and she also advocated consistency. She claims that people who write every day for 15-30 minutes get 10x more written than people who write in short bursts.

So, with all that in mind, I am striving for more consistency in my life. It has not been easy, but I am already seeing a difference in my sleeping and exercise habits. Additionally, I have done an hour's worth of solid work on a journal article that I hope to have submitted in the next month or two.

It's not exciting or funny, this being consistent, but hard work seldom is. Maybe I'll start wearing a funny hat. Or listening to some Tom Jones music.

Another 5K

Well, since last running a 5K in May, I have moved (three times), started a new job, gotten engaged, planned a wedding, gotten married and so many other little in-betweens. Basically I am starting all over at the beginning of a work-out routine. I am going to run a 5K on March 26th. The goal is to also run a 10K in June.

The last time I trained, I had my faithful friend Anna to train with me. We ran outside late in the evening. My husband, Steve, and I joined a gym together some months ago in attempt to help the both of us get fit. So...this 5K training will consist of treadmill training during the week...so Steve can go to the gym with me...and then I will do an outside run on Saturdays. (Which I am currently procrastinating since I am on the computer. :)

I have only completed WK 1 Day 1 and let me just say that it is a real shame that I stopped running. Geez...completely out of shape once again. However, it is a place to start and I can only go up from here.

Pie Are Squared: Turtle Pie

For Thanksgiving, I wanted to make something extra delicious. And chocolatey. I scoured the internet for a delicious chocolate pie but didn't really find anything that fit all the criteria I was looking for. Or I'd find a delicious looking one that didn't include a recipe. So I ended up kind of making one up.
I realized that was I was really craving was the turtle cheesecake. They used to sell the whole cake at Sam's Club; now all I can find are the little square bites. You know, oreo crust, cheesecake topped with chocolate chips, pecans, and caramel? Well, for some reason that I can't remember now, I didn't want cheesecake, so I made an alternative, cheesecakeless version.
First, a regular crust that I prebaked using my new pie weights! I actually bought them a while ago, but this is their maiden voyage. The crust still kind of melted down the sides, but it wasn't too bad. I wanted to do a fun, decorative edge, but I couldn't think of anything, so I just made the regular fluting bigger.
Then, I made dulce de leche by pressure cooking a can of sweetened condensed milk for 30 minutes. I put a layer of that in the bottom of the crust and topped it with mini chocolate chips and chopped pecans.

Then, I prepared a chocolate mousse and poured that on top of the caramelly mixture. Top again with chocolate chips, pecans, and more dulce de leche.

It was pretty good. But very rich. And I found myself wishing it had more of a cheesecakey texture. Sort of like that turtle cheesecake I'd been imagining.
Why didn't I just make it a cheesecake? I have no idea.
I still have half of the pie in my fridge. Yeah, I know, it's been two weeks.

Ratings:

Flavor: 8

Execution: 9. Looked like the kind of pie you'd want to get at a restaurant...even if you end up regretting it because it is too rich to finish.

Difficulty: Medium. The mousse kind of took a bit of finagling, but not too bad, really.

Overall rating: *** 3 out of 5 stars.

Pie Are Squared: Pink Lady Apple Pie

"My grandmother used to say, 'Men expect women to be particular. As women, we shouldn't disappoint them.'"
With that in mind, the Patty Pinner advised me ask for a higher standard and use Pink Lady apples for this pie. I am not enough of an apple connoisseur to identify if Pink Lady apple pie is any better--or any different--from regular apple pie. But it was good.

I used the flag method of fluting the pie, which I thought looked kind of silly when it was raw. Then I added some little maple leaf crust shapes, brushed it with milk, and sprinkled on some sugar in the raw.
Once it was baked, the flag crust looked less silly.

Ratings:

Flavor: 8

Execution: 9. I thought it turned out rather nicely.

Difficulty: Medium. Though I feel like I may not be a good judge of pie difficulty. I'm not a huge fan of rolling out the dough, but it's not really difficult, but I don't like to do it, so double crust pies are more of a pain...I'll let you decide.

Overall rating: **** 4 out of 5 stars.

This pie crust recipe always leaves a fair amount of leftovers; double crust doubles the leftover. I always refrigerate the leftovers for a few days, thinking I'll do something with it later. I never have.
This time, though, my husband decided to put an end to the wasting of pie crust in our household and made a savory pie for dinner.

It was meaty and spicy and good. Thanks, dear. He did a pretty good job, eh?

Also, need I remind you that the biggest pie making holiday of the year is approaching? Happy pie making/eating, everyone.

Camp Cupcake: The rest of the story

So, I did go running that night. In fact, what I did in order to make sure that I went running was to call Anne.

By calling Anne, two things happened:

I actually went running that night because I had someone to go running with.

I got talked into running a half-marathon.

For me, it was an opportunity to do what I have been talking about doing for a long time--staying consistent and continuing on with something after completing a big goal. It involved getting up early to go for runs down Provo Canyon before work, or going running around the Orem High track at night.

The race was yesterday. It was a half marathon down Provo Canyon, starting at Aspen Grove (near Sundance, home of Robert Redford) and finishing up at a shopping center at the mouth of Provo Canyon. The notable thing about this race, besides it being the last big race of the season in Utah county, is that, because it falls over Halloween weekend, people dress up.

I was not among those people dressed up because I could not find a costume I was willing to wear for 13.1 miles of sweaty running. However, here are some of the costumes I saw:

-M&Ms (there was a whole group of them)

-Goofy (there was a running club that were all dressed alike in green shirts, black running tights, orange suspenders, and those giant tall hats with the Goofy ears).

-Captain America

-Superman

-Super Grover (his costume was furry. I have trouble believing he was able to run the entire distance without taking it off).

-catsup and mustard

Additionally, there were tons of women wearing funky tights/socks and/or tutus.

The only other notable thing about this race was that I got separated from the people I was running with when I had to make a stop at the Honey Bucket. Ten minutes later, I was back out on the trail. The line was that long. When I got back out, I found myself surrounded by several of the Goofys. One of the things that has always bothered me about running with other people is when you pass a person or a group of people who decide that they do not want to be passed by you, and who speed up just long enough to pass you, but then slow back down. It is particularly annoying when it is a whole group of people, and they are dressed like Goofy, and it happens three or four times.

Happily, I finished the race a few minutes behind my friends. Like I said, this was the last big race of the season. I do not plan to run another race until next year. However, in the meantime, I plan to continue to run a few times a week, both to stay consistent and to be ready for next running season. What I mostly gained from yesterday's race is that, whether I ever get good at it or not, there is something about running that I am beginning to enjoy, and I think I'll keep doing it.

Grill Pans, Birthday Cake, and Indian Food

Don't let my lack of posting fool you; the baby birds are not starving. I really do enjoy trying new recipes and have even found a few that we now use in our regular rotation. The thing that I really don't do very well is blog about them. So here you go, another multi-recipe post of a few things I've tried that might be worth mentioning. I'll start with the ones I remembered to photograph:

First up: Grilled Chicken and Pineapple Quesadillas. I saw these on the Pioneer Woman's site quite a while ago but never made them because I didn't have a grill pan and we've had some issues with our outdoor grill. But finally my curiosity about the prospect of indoor grilling got the best of me and I purchased this grill pan. The quesadillas were the first thing I made with it.

The grill pan verdict: I'm actually pretty surprised at what good results this turned out. I guess I had always just assumed that grilling on my electric range could never come close to outdoor grilling. But the pineapple I grilled in this pan was so irresistible that by the time I was able to stop sampling it, I almost didn't have any left to make the quesadillas. I've also grilled chicken and hamburgers in the pan and the only negative I can see is the amount of smoke that ends up in your kitchen instead of outside. (Anyone know what to do about that besides open the windows?) The convenience of this pan is definitely worth the price.

The recipe verdict: This was a great way to dress up ordinary chicken quesadillas. There are a couple of optional ingredients--extra barbecue sauce and jalapeños--and after trying all of the possible combinations we decided that we preferred them with both. I decided to omit the butter on the outside of the quesadillas. I'm sure it would have tasted extra great and fattening.


A couple of months ago my husband The Emasculated Baker (who stopped making cakes because he felt like he was forcing them on his coworkers) turned thirty. I decided to steer clear of his cake recipes as I doubted my ability to duplicate his meticulous attention to detail. Instead I made this souped-up cake mix recipe for chocolate-peppermint poke cake. It was nothing fancy, but it tasted pretty good and if you're the kind of person who likes chopped up candy bars throughout your cake, it's great! When I made it I couldn't find any white chocolate pudding mix, so I used regular chocolate. I also baked it in two 9-inch round pans and made a layer cake with a layer of frosting and extra peppermint patties in between the cake layers. And instead of using the frosting straight from the can, I whipped a cup of heavy cream and folded it into the canned frosting mixed with peppermint extract.


As you may have noticed by now, many of the recipes I try come from The Pioneer Woman Cooks or from PW's community recipe site Tasty Kitchen. I've seen this recipe for Butter Chicken come into the TK spotlight several times and have always been amazed by how consistently high its ratings have been. It's pretty rare for 73 people (at the time of this post) to have rated any one recipe, but over those 73 ratings, it still maintains a score of 4.73 mitts (on a scale of one to five). I've been wanting to try it for a long time, but every time I go to buy carda0mom at my local Wal-Mart and see that it costs over $10 just for a small bottle, I change my mind. Luckily, my cupcake-baking sister just moved into town with a jar of cardamom that she bought for a cupcake recipe. Only in a Martha Stewart cupcake would you find something like cardamom. So excitedly, I made the chicken, adjusting the amount of cayenne pepper in individual portions so that George and I could have it as spicy as we like it while not making it too spicy for the kids. And it was good. I would even say that it was really good. Definitely a recipe that I'll be making again. But I have to say, after the months of hearing all of the raves about this recipe, it was not as amazing as I was imagining it to be and the only reason I can think of to explain my disappointment is that I had such high expectations. So here is my new mantra for life: set your expectations low and you'll never be disappointed. Amen.

I couldn't really imagine eating Indian food without some fresh naan, so I thought I would look for a good recipe to try. And now, months later, I honestly can't remember which recipe I happened to try this time. I know it was one that I got from Tasty Kitchen, but it's been so long and I looked at all of them thoroughly enough that they all look familiar to me now. But quite honestly, whichever one it was it wasn't good enough that I bothered to add it to my recipe box. And this is not the first time I've said that about a naan recipe. This was my third or fourth time making it and I've yet to find a recipe that's worth keeping. Most of them come out a little too...dry? Too reminiscent of those spongy, squeeze-y stress-reliever things? I'm beginning to think that the problem is not in the recipes, but in my technique. So if any of you have a great naan recipe that you like to make, please send it my way and if it turns out bad on me, I will have isolated the problem. Thanks. Through my failures I have made one valuable naan-related discovery: cooking it on a preheated pizza stone in the oven is a lot easier and less smoky than cooking it on a grill.

That's all for this time. I still have a bunch of recipes that I've tried to blog about, but at this point I'd say it's high time I just ended this and posted something.

Pie Are Squared: Miss Oleda Halliburton's Easy Pear Pie on a Baking Sheet

This has been the biggest disappointment along my pie making journey.
I have been excited about this pie for a long time, partly because pear pie sounds delicious, but mostly because the crust wouldn't require cutting and transferring and shaping. You just roll it out, plop on the filling, fold it up, and you're good to go.
Or so I thought.
It goes without saying that the picture in the book looked nothing like my final product here. I think my filling was somehow a lot more watery. And then all the leakage. Look at all the leakage! It just looks terrible.
But I still didn't despair. Even if it looks awful, it will still taste great, right?
Not really. It didn't taste bad; cinnamon, sugar, and pears can't taste bad really. But it wasn't that great. It was pretty much a mediocre apple pie with a slight peariness.
Bleh.

Ratings:

Flavor: 6

Execution: 4. Man, it was ugly.

Difficulty: Easy. But it turns out that pies are made in cup-shaped pans for a reason.

Overall rating: ** 2 out of 5 stars.

Pie Are Squared: Chicken Pot Pie

Here's to my first savory pie: chicken pot pie!
Now that the weather's cooling off and feeling all autumnal, I thought pie would nice for dinner.
I must say, it was delicious. I paired it with cranberry sauce, and they complemented each other well. (Usually "pairing" something reminds me of wines that are supposed to complement some fancy dinner, so I am amusing myself by using that wording with something as pedestrian as canned cranberry sauce).

I actually did a double pie crust, but it was so much extra work, and you don't even notice the bottom crust, so I am recommending just putting crust on top.

Further, if you're just feeling lazy but want chicken pot pie-ness, you can make the filling and then serve it over toast. That is good, too.
Here's a shot of me making the pie:

Ratings:

Flavor: 8

Execution: 7. I wasn't very thorough about the egg wash=ugly top

Difficulty: Pretty simple. You'll want to work fast once you get the crust on top because the heat of the filling starts soggifying the crust pretty quickly.

Overall rating: **** 4 out of 5 stars.

The filling is my dad's recipe, so I'm happy to share it with the universe:

Chicken Pot Pie:

1 pie crust, prepared
3 c chicken broth
1 chicken breast, cubed
1/4 c frozen peas
1/4 c chopped carrots
1/4 c frozen corn
1/4 c chopped onion
1 stick butter
3/4 c flour
salt and pepper to taste
1. Boil chicken, peas, carrots, and corn in broth until cooked.
2. In large pot, sauté onion in butter until translucent. Add flour; stir until combined.
3. Add broth mixture to onions and heat until thick; season with salt and pepper. Pour thickened mixture into deep dish pie plate. Cover with pie crust; fold edges under and crimp. Brush with egg wash, if desired.
4. Bake at 425º for 30 minutes or until crust is golden.

Pie crust:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 cup shortening, chilled
3–4 Tbsp. cold milk

1. In a medium bowl stir together flour and salt. Using a pastry blender, large fork, or the tips of your fingers, cut in or pinch or squeeze the shortening until mixture resembles crumbs the size of peas. Tossing the mixture quickly and lightly with a fork, sprinkle in the milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until dough holds together when lightly pressed. Gather dough into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for about 30 minutes.
2. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to a 12-inch circle, rolling from the center to the edges and giving dough quarter-turns frequently. Place the 9-inch pie plate upside down on top of the rolled-out dough. Using a small knife, cut a circle around the plate, leaving a 1-inch border of dough around the plate.

Camp Cupcake: On and off the exercise wagon

After boldly declaring to the world (or the 9 followers of this blog) that I was going to be consistent in my efforts to eat well and exercise, I have exercised a grand total of twice.

Which I still maintain is better than zero.

Thursday morning (one week ago) I got up and did my Cardio Hula with Kili video. Unlike Charlie, I do not have any islander blood in me, and it was a bit of a workout. I felt good all day.

Then, my friend Kim came into town. We had an awesome time, as evidenced by this post. However, I did not exercise that whole time. Unless, of course, you count all the walking we did around campus, to and from our parking spot at the football game, around Olympic Park, and inside IKEA. And I probably shouldn't count that, since the rest of the trip was spent eating at places like Cafe Rio, Brick Oven, Kneaders, Panda Express, and Mini's Retro Cafe.

So, Wednesday night, I decided I needed to go for a run. I called up my friend Anne, who, coincidentally, was about to go running by herself. Shortly thereafter, we ended up at Orem High, where we ran just under four miles around the track. Again, it felt good. And I was reminded that it is infinitely easier to run when you have someone to run with--particularly if that person lets you use those four miles to complain about your life. Thanks for that, Anne.

Now, I am sitting in my office, about to go home. I know that, when I get home, I should go for a run. At the same time, there is that part of me that is trying to talk myself out of it because it has already been a long week and I want to go home, put on my pj's, and go to bed. The beauty of this blog is that if I write here that I should go home and go for a run, I am much more likely to actually do that than if I kept my thoughts to myself. We'll see if it works.

Camp Cupcake: Starting over

First of all, I just have to say how grateful I am for Ami (Pie Are Squared). Without her contributions, I probably would have abandoned this blog before now. I love this blog, so I would have hated that.

Forgive me if I wax philosophical, and dare I say it, ramble for a moment:

Over the last few weeks, I've been thinking about goals, and what you do when you have accomplished your goals.

In my lifetime, I have set many, many goals. Some of them have been big goals that have taken years like, "Get a Ph.D." Some of them are small goals like, "Go to bed before 1 a.m. tonight" And some are goals that you could argue have no lasting benefits to me or to society, like "Bake all of the cupcakes in Martha Stewart's cupcake cookbook over the course of a year." For me, goals get accomplished because I can see an end in sight.

But, as I think about my life, and who I am, and who I still want to be, I am beginning to recognize how important and overlooked the principle of consistency is. Let's say, for example, that I completed a marathon. The euphoria of finishing it, and the shiny medal they give you at the end last beyond that day, but the health effects of daily training only last if you continue to train. If you are constantly looking toward the end goal, rather than the process, it is hard to maintain consistency. Further, it is hard to get any better at what you are doing if you are only focused on the end.

My job, I am quickly discovering, is highly sedentary. I have a lovely desk, and a nice desk chair, and, if I didn't get up to go to the bathroom or microwave my Hot Pockets in the break room, I could, conceivably, stay in this chair for a whole day. In fact, sometimes I try to see if I can get all the way around my office without having to get up out of my chair. My coworkers are all significantly older than I am (somewhere between 10 and 35 years older), and I can see the effects such a lifestyle can have on a person who is not regularly exercising and dieting over a period of years.

To be fair, they are all busy people. They all have spouses, children, classes, research, students to advise, and clients to see. Not to mention, they are all active in their respective church congregations, which can also be rather time-intensive. And, I am sure, there are other things in their lives that are keeping them busy that I don't know about. My point is, exercise, in my profession, is not something that just happens. In order to stay healthy and fit, it requires a great deal of action, and, unfortunately, consistency.

So, this time around, I do not have some big end goal that I can check off. I mean, my end goals are to maintain a healthy weight, good cholesterol levels, not to have a heart attack, diabetes, or bone and joint problems, and to avoid getting sick as much as possible for as much of my life as possible.

So, how am I going to accomplish this? I'm not sure. But, for now, I think it will go something like this:

• Give up sugary cereal for breakfast in favor of oatmeal (which, as far as I can tell, is replacing cupcakes, smoothies, or frozen yogurt as the new trendy food)
• Cook two healthy dinners a week. As far as I can tell, this one will probably require the use of my Crock-Pot, so I appreciate all of Sarah's recipes.
• Exercise four times a week. I predict this one will be the hardest for me. I prefer exercise to be something that just happens in my life. Like, some mornings, I just wake up and feel like running. That's pretty rare, though. I think the biggest barrier to this will be time management. If I manage my time better at night, I get to bed at a decent hour, and I can wake up early enough to exercise. If I don't, it all goes downhill.

I realize that these goals are pretty boring compared to cupcakes, and, to be honest, I haven't figured out a way to blog about them that has a chance of being interesting. Also, because I don't have a time table for this that is more finite than, "the rest of my life," I could be blogging for a long time. However, it seems to me like another way in which goals can work is if they are reported, which was why I started this blog in the first place. So, hopefully, I can make that work.

Also, I plan to keep the handle Camp Cupcake, until I can come up with a different one. Or, possibly forever. Martha might have been able to shake it, but I'm not sure I want to.

Mayor Ham's Brown Sugar Peach Pie

Some friends, with whom we frequently hang out, called me out on the fact that I've been making pies for months and they had yet to have any. So I promised to provide some next time we saw them, which was last weekend.
I hope they enjoyed it, because I thought it was mighty tasty. Even though I just bought the peaches at Wal-Mart and they weren't super ripe, the pie turned out to be delicious. When I looked at the recipe, I thought it was pretty much just like an apple pie, but with peaches. So I wasn't particularly excited. But it was a great medley of fruitiness, spice, and buttery crust.
Not to mention we had fun hanging out.
Thanks to Camp Cupcake, Mother Bird, and The Emasculated Male for encouraging me to share the deliciousicity.

Ratings:

Flavor: 10

Execution: 10

Difficulty: Easy, plus you get to make a lattice!

Overall rating: ***** 5 out of 5 stars.

Pie Are Squared: Mama's Fresh Raspberry Pie

I was really excited about this pie. It ended up being good, but not amazing. Which surprised me because when I was mixing the lemon zest in with the raspberries, it smelled so wonderful I could hardly stand it. We ate this pie with vanilla bean ice cream, which was a perfect complement.
In the middle of preparing the pie, some friends invited us over to play games, so we brought along the pie to enjoy together. I had forgotten my camera, so my friend Emily graciously took a picture for me. Many of you probably know my friend Emily, perhaps more recognizable as Trisha:

Anyway, it was a fun night of fun pie. You should've been there.

Ratings:

Flavor: 8

Execution: 8

Difficulty: Easy, if you're okay with a double crust.

Overall rating: **** 4 out of 5 stars.

Pie Are Squared: Strawberry Lover's Pie

This was a departure from the Sweety Pies book. My sister was coming into town and asked for a chocolate pie. She rejected every chocolate pie in my book (there are actually only three), so I ventured elsewhere.
This pie was okay. I feel like it took too many steps for a mediocre product. And just so you know, that is NOT Hershey's syrup drizzled on the top. It is melted chocolate chips, on top of a raspberry jam glaze, which is on top of fresh strawberries, which are on top of a cream cheese/sour cream mixture, which is in a chocolate painted crust.
See what I mean by too many steps?
The pie was good, but not THAT good.

Ratings:

Flavor: 6

Execution: 8. The drizzling really wasn't pretty.

Difficulty: Easy, but it takes a while.

Overall rating: *** 3 out of 5 stars.

Sister Baby's Buttermilk Pie

This is not a picture of the pie I made. I forgot to take a picture, so this is one I found online of the same recipe. My pie was not nearly so pretty. It browned to a dark brown on top, and the filling was still runny. It tasted good and all, but I am frustrated with my failures at custard pies. Every single one has turned out runny. I don't know if there's something wrong with my preparation, my oven, or the elevation, but I really want to figure out the problem. As I've researched potential solutions online, I've come across several options that I would consider cheating: adding cornstarch or tapioca to thicken things. I'm not saying it's morally wrong or anything (haha, the morality of pies), but I feel like the recipes were written that way for a reason and they should be able to work without adding an extra thickener.
So. Since I feel like I've become pretty good at pie crusts (which was my original goal in this endeavor) I think I will move on to making successful custard pies (which is differentiated from cream pies in that custard pies are baked in the oven, while cream pies have a filling that is precooked on the stovetop before putting in the oven). I won't necessarily be making a custard pie every time, but that is my new goal.
Here's a link to the recipe, which I would recommend for sure. And let me know if your custard sets well. I need some help. Oh, and the online recipe calls for orange zest, while my recipe in the book called for lemon. I think orange would be even better than lemon.

Ratings:

Flavor: 7

Execution: 6

Difficulty: Easy, if you ignore my custard problems.

Overall rating: *** 3 out of 5 stars.

Camp Cupcake: Fruitcake

I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I am a week away from moving out of Lubbock, six days from graduation, five days from my family coming to visit, and two days from quitting work. I've been a little bit busy.

I have now completed all of the recipes I committed to make in Martha Stewart's Cupcake Cookbook. They are done. It will probably be a little while before I blog about all of them.

However, yesterday was July 31, and I promised that I would be done with all of these recipes by then.

On Wednesday, I made the fruitcakes and attempted the meringue mushrooms on Thursday.

Let me go on record right now as saying that this is one of Martha's more bizarre ideas.

I can wrap my head around fruitcake. When my parents were first married, my mom made fruitcake at Christmas. My dad, after tasting my mom's, decided to try to improve upon it. Since then, it has been a weird obsession with him to make fruitcake every year, usually just after Thanksgiving, and to try to improve upon it every year (Yes, I am aware that I have probably inherited this from him).

I realize that not everyone likes fruitcake. In fact, it is sort of a joke at Christmas time. It is dense, with a very small cake-to-fruit ratio. In addition, the fruit is typically candied, and like marzipan, is a substance unto itself. At the same time, I have fond memories of fruitcake at Christmas. I discovered that I am not the only one. I brought these to the temple yesterday and had a 15-minute conversation with one of the other temple workers about the fruitcake her husband's mother made for many years. My dad has several people he makes his for every year, and for them, it is a holiday highlight (or so they say).

The meringue mushrooms made a lot less sense to me. When I described them to people, I realized that I was not alone. I still, for the life of me, cannot understand why Martha thought that needed to happen. Apparently, fruitcake is not impressive enough by itself.

So I made the recipe, which I have included here. The only difference between the recipe linked and the one I made is that I used half the fruit and nuts, which gave it a better cake-to-fruit ratio.

I did not make the Seven-Minute Frosting because there is little difference between it and the meringue I had to make for the mushrooms, so before I baked the meringue, I used it to frost the cupcakes.

Here is a picture of my cookbook:

You probably can't see the smears of chocolate, or the pages hanging loose. I intend to have it spiral-bound when I settle down in Utah.

I really wanted to wrap this up neatly, like Julie and Julia, with the life lessons I have learned, and a pilgrimage to Martha Stewart's home in New York to sneak a can of Dutch-processed cocoa onto her porch before her security guards find me. However, in the midst of all of this baking and blogging, my life happened in a wonderful and exhausting way that, unlike Julie Powell's life, has nothing to do with baking or blogging.

So, that's the lesson I would leave for the three people who are curious if I ever finished this project or not: life does not always have to fit together neatly. Sometimes, you can do something like bake cupcakes or start a blog, and it can be a wonderful release without having to give birth to a book deal or a new restaurant, or a calling or a relationship. Sometimes, baking can just be about baking.

Sometimes a cupcake is just a cupcake.

And, while I have not yet selected a new project to continue my involvement in this blog, rest assured that there will be another one. As silly as the cupcake project was, there is something about setting a goal and completing it that I am addicted to.

For now, though, this is Camp Cupcake, aka Keiko Agena, signing off.

Miss Viola Tresvant's Blueberry Pie with the Crumb Topping

This was a yummy pie. I am really enjoying the berries of summer allowing me to make delicious berry pies fairly inexpensively.
I realized that I really hadn't been giving Ms. Patty Pinner the recognition she deserves with some of these recipes; the stories she shares about the women who provided the recipes have been all but forgotten on this blog. So I share with you the story of Miss Viola Tresvant:
When Miss Viola began going through her middle age "womanly time," she found herself having frequent crying spells. They became so frequent that her husband started just ignoring them, when all she wanted was for him to pay attention to her and soothe her. So she starting serving sparse dinners when he'd ignore her and bake this pie when he'd baby her. He quickly caught on, and both partners were happy.
Some might call it passive-aggressive, but if you tasted the pie, I think you'd agree it was worth it.
This is the first pie I've made this year that was actually gone in the first day. It might have something to do with the fact that we had two different couples stop by that night. They must have smelled the pie.
I just want to inform you of the butter count in this recipe:

Crust-1 stick
Crumb topping-1 stick
Berry filling-2 tablespoons

You read that correctly: 2 sticks+2 tablespoons butter in one pie!

I think the pie would have been just as good with half of the crumb topping; it took some deft piling to get it all to stay on top. But two of the friends who came over--completely independent of each other--both mentioned that the topping was wonderful and how they wished there was more. So. Bring on the butter.

Here's the pie, prebaked.

Ratings:

Flavor: 9

Execution: 9-the fluting just wasn't working for me.

Difficulty: Easy.

Overall rating: ***** 5 out of 5 stars.

Mother Bird: Four New Recipes!

I could give some excuses for not posting on this blog as much as I had hoped to, but they would all be a big, lame waste of time. So instead, here are four recipes I've tried that I would make again. There have been more recipes that I have tried that I would not make again, but I think posting about those ones would be pretty dumb, considering how long it has taken me to post about the good ones.
I found this Asiago Garlic and Herb Bread on the Pioneer Woman's community recipe sharing site, Tasty Kitchen and I have to say, it's definitely my new go-to for dinner bread. I've made it several times since my first try and have had lots of requests for the recipe. It makes two loaves, so we usually eat one with dinner and save the other for ultimate grilled cheese sandwiches the next night. It makes great panini sandwiches.


Here are a few notes, in case you want to try it:
- I use Parmesan cheese instead of Asiago (because I usually have it on hand) and I don't think I've ever used the full amount. I just grate until I'm sick of grating and call it good.
-I only use half of the crushed red pepper. My kids are wimpy when it comes to spicy food.
-Instant yeast is a must. It won't rise right if you use active dry.

This Ham and Potato Soup was also a Tasty Kitchen find. It was super fast, kid-friendly, and used up leftover ham. Win-win-win! I thought mine was a little on the salty side (I think my chicken bouillon is extra salty) so next time I make it, I'll add the bouillon and extra salt a little at a time, tasting between additions.








I thought it would be fun to make corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's day and this recipe looked like an easy and popular one. It was good but not fabulous. I only have one corned beef and cabbage experience from a long time ago for comparison, so I guess it's possible that I'm just not wild about it no matter how it's cooked. Also, there was no room for the cabbage in my crock pot, so I would have had to cook it separately if I hadn't been too lazy to do so.


This last one is a definite keeper. My sister-in-law Robin had these waffles and syrups at a church function where they were enjoyed so much that the recipes were later distributed to all of the women who attended. Both of the syrups are good, but the Hawaiian Coconut Syrup is my favorite. I could just eat its liquid gold goodness all by itself. And I did.

Oatmeal Waffles

2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoons salt
2 cups rolled oats (I used quick oats)
3 cups milk
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil

Combine dry ingredients. Scramble eggs with milk and add to dry mixture. Add oil. Mix lightly and bake in a waffle iron. Hearty enough for dinner. (I had to spray my waffle iron after every single waffle or I had major sticking problems. I tried making it again without the sugar and it seemed a little better and tasted just as good.)

Hawaiian Coconut Syrup

1 cube (1/2 cup) butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon coconut flavoring or coconut oil (I just used imitation coconut extract)

Combine butter, sugar, buttermilk, and baking soda in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Mixture will foam, so be sure to use a large enough pan to prevent overflowing. Remove from heat and add coconut flavoring.

Apple Cinnamon Syrup

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3-1/2 cups apple juice

Sift together brown sugar, cornstarch, allspice, and nutmeg. Add apple juice and cook until bubbly. (This one is really good but doesn't keep super well in the refrigerator. I would make a half batch or less and plan on not keeping it for very long.)

Camp Cupcake: Pistachio Raspberry Teacakes

You know what I love about summer? Fresh fruit.

These cupcake recipes are starting to come out of order based on the fact that I have some time to kill in the Albuquerque airport and I am just posting those recipes that I can link to Martha's website.

My friend Allison is currently housesitting for a senior missionary couple in our ward. In the front of their house, they have several raspberry bushes that have been in season the last few weeks. She invited me to come over and pick as many as I needed. However, the day I needed the raspberries, the owners of the home came back in town-

I need to interrupt this post to let the blogosphere know that, right now, in the airport, a couple is demonstrating swing dance moves to a friend.

-and I chickened out. For this reason, the fresh raspberries in this particular recipe came from the store.

It was still good.

Here's the recipe.

I left out the pistachio slivers, though. I feel like it is overkill on the pistachio.

French Silk Pie

This was a delicious pie. I just found the recipe online, since I invited some family over who is quite picky but loves chocolate.
I did encounter a problem, though. This is my first pie that required a prebaked crust. I didn't have pie weights or even some beans to prevent crust bubbling, so I just pierced it well. So, the bottom of the crust didn't bubble up, but the sides kind of crumpled, leading to unpretty pie.

Obviously, it didn't affect the flavor, but I'm trying to go for tasty and pretty here. And I really don't know what to do about it. Even if I had official pie weights, they wouldn't counteract the forces of gravity. I'm going to have to do some research.
Ratings:

Flavor: 10

Execution: 7-the filling was great, but the aforementioned cascading of pie sides disappointed me.

Difficulty: Moderate

Overall rating: ***** 5 out of 5 stars.

Camp Cupcake: Cherry-Almond Teacakes

It's been awhile.

I have discovered that, with finishing the dissertation, packing up, prepping classes, and trying to find a place in Utah, the thing I struggle with is not the baking. Rather, it is taking pictures of what I have baked.

There are no pictures of the honey bee cupcakes (they were bad), the iced pistachio cupcakes, the pistachio raspberry cupcakes, or the date-nut mini cupcakes. I am divided about whether or not to even do a post about any of these.

But these tiny teacakes I thought were worthy of a post because they were a big hit, and because they were a little unusual.

As you can see by the picture, Martha recommended baking a whole cherry in each one, with the stem left on and sticking out of the batter. In fact, if Martha had her way, I would have left the pits inside the cherries and just warned people that they were there. I thought that was a bad idea. Sometimes I just leave cupcakes places and don't have the opportunity to give people instructions about how to eat them. Some of the people I give them to have prosthodontics. So, I bought this guy:

I'm sure more dignified cherry pitters exist, but every time I look at this one, I smile. You put the cherry in his mouth, push down on his head, and the pit shoots down into his leg area. I can't even describe it without giggling. But it worked.

Tiny Cherry and Almond Tea Cakes